We as coaches are striving for continuous improvement; one of the toughest things to do is finding where new plays/ ideas "fit" within the structurre of an offense. In fact, the system from which I work is the culmination of years doing just that -- taking the seemingly limitless ideas in the passing game and grouping them into digestable pieces. One of my consulting clients, Josh Herring of Lassiter High School (GA), has been doing some *terrific* stuff in their high-powered, high octane passing game for the last several years. His spin on and old West Coast offense staple - HB READ - is not only effective and explosive, but also fits in supremely well into the structure of their offense. Our old version of HB READ (called 13 A or B Choice in Coach Mackovic's offense), featured a running back running an option route on an isolated LB. He could sit versus zone, break out vesus man, and cut across his face if the LB overplayed to the outside:

This option route was surrounded by a pattern that handled LBers "bracketing" the option route by providing 1 on 1 routes out by outside receivers, and a "middle read" to drive back the top of Cover 2 or a "Tampa 2" MLB.

While the pattern is a good one, the amount of teaching involved was more than one would like, and the pattern had to operate as a "stand alone" play in the offense, without really fitting with anything else. When I got into coaching, my desire to streamline teaching by grouping plays into pass concepts shoved the choice route onto the back burner of my offensive thinking. Herring has taken the choice route (called "Sloppy" in their terminology), simplified it's teaching, and found compartments in the offense in which it fits perfectly.

Used as a "Mike Read" backside tag (one of the three classifications of backside tags in this passing game), Lassiter High routinely mates "Sloppy" (H Sloppy if the slot is running it; F Sloppy if it is the singleback) with a frontside "Stick" pattern -- one of the "Big Three" pass concepts in this passing attack. "Mike Read" tags serve the purpose of gaining a numerical advantage versus 2-high defensive coverages: in the diagram below, if the MLB overcommits to the strong side, the WLB becomes vulnerable to various 2 on 1 combinations by the 2 offensive receivers on the left.

Using a familiar frontside combination like STICK provides efficiency for the offense; if MLB plays honest, the offense plays "pitch and catch" vs. the Sam LB. As the MLB reacts to the stick, the big play potential of the "Sloppy" route becomes realized:

The teaching of the option route is very straightforward. The tagged receiver runs a quick post; if he crosses the WLB's face he'll have plenty of room to work because the rotated towards the stick side.

The end result is the ability to feature a gifted option route runner anytime the defense leaves him isolated; should the defense commit two players to bracket, the offense is left with easy completions provided by the stick combination. Josh was kind enough to provide some video: